Innovations in Sustainable Tourism: Shaping the Future of Destinations

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to explore sustainable innovations in tourism and their impact on shaping the future of destinations. With the growing awareness of environmental, social and economic issues related to tourism, there is an urgent need to identify and analyze innovative practices that promote sustainability in tourism destinations.

Over the last decade, the development and use of technological innovations have expanded at a fast rate and transformed the field of tourism. In the context of tourism, technological innovations are linked to the concepts of smart tourism and smart destination (Dias and Cardoso, 2019). Perhaps the model that best explains the linking of the concepts involved is that developed by Gretzel et al. (2018), where the model works as a system of pillars. Smart tourism is anchored by a smart destination at the base, a smart business in the middle and a smart experience at the top; interconnecting the pillars are mega-data (including data collection, sharing and processing) as well as conventional smart tourism management systems. In fact, smart tourism within the innovation context refers to the competitive advantage that arises from the use of smart technologies, such as sensors, beacons, mobile phone apps, radio-frequency identification (RFID), near-field communication (NFC), smart meters, the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, relational databases, etc., which together form a smart digital ecosystem based on innovations and new business models (Cardoso and Araújo Vila, 2019). In short, smart tourism can be summed up in a single word, "smartness", which simply refers to the smart way of diagnosing, planning and managing tourism by relying on such smart technologies. However, this “smartness” of tourism destination planning and management is also linked to the sustainable future of tourism destinations. Sustainability values applied to tourism destinations are accented in several dimensions, including the social, the economic, the environmental and the institutional, and includes all types of tourism (Cardoso et al. 2023). Sustainability has been referenced in many ways in tourism research, which has stressed that development must focus on productivity so it is sustained in the long term for future generations (Butler, 1999).

Regarding sustainability applied to tourism, Segittur (2019) introduced the tourism intelligence system (SIT) based on the concepts of innovation, sustainability, accessibility and technology. According to the norm that led to its creation, UNE 178501: 2015, an intelligent tourist destination (DTI) is “a territory accessible to all, which makes use of innovation and technology, guarantees sustainable tourism development in its three aspects (economic, socio- cultural and environmental) to improve the tourist experience and the quality of life of the citizen and is governed by a Management Body”.

Several models of tourist intelligence systems applied to smart destinations have already been suggested. However, only the ones by Femenia-Serra and Ivards-Baidal (2018) and by Gretzel et al. (2018) require us to look beyond the interests of the tourists and to pay more attention to the tourists’ perceptions about their experiences in smart destinations. The definition and model of smart tourism by Gretzel et al. (2018) actually conceives a layer dedicated to tourist experiences of a smart destination (e.g., gamification and virtual reality, among others). Moreover, a research gap has been identified that defines conceptual schemes to characterize tourists in the context of a smart destination (Femenia-Serra & Ivards-Baidal, 2018; Gretzel 2018). Moreover, Gretzel (2018) argues that it is essential that the areas of smart tourism should involve experience and stresses the fact that the tourist experience at a smart destination requires conceptualization based not only on the experiences that tourists can have in a particular destination, but also on the experiences on the way to and from specific destinations within a region. The author points out that in this area there is a lot of conceptual work to be conducted to carry forward the idea of a smart destination (Gretzel, 2018). On the other hand, there is also a gap in how tourists perceive new technologies in the context of smart destinations, and as Gretzel (2018) argues, it is crucial to define the tourists’ perceptions of experiences at these smart destinations, that is, to define the imagery of tourist experiences at smart destinations. In light of the above, this Special Issue aims to fill in these research gaps in innovation and sustainability as applied to tourism in order to shape the future of tourism destinations. The proposed topics are:

• Innovations applied to tourism destinations and hospitality connected with sustainability.
• Innovations in tourism products (sun and sea, cultural, rural, nautical, ecotourism, city tourism, etc.) and sustainability.
• Innovation in hospitality financial management.
• Financial sustainability in the hospitality sector.
• Balanced scorecards in the hospitality industry.
• Smart destinations and sustainability.
• Tourist intelligence systems applied to smart destinations, driving the future of destinations.
• The tourists’ experience at the smart destinations.
• The tourists’ perceptions/destination image and imagery of the smart destinations.
• Tourists' perceptions of smart technologies.
• The experiences between tourists in a smart destination environment.
• Place branding, destination branding, destination image and territorial brand.
• Best practices in sustainable tourism management.
• Innovation in sustainable hospitality.
• Ecotourism and nature tourism.
• Community-based tourism and the local economy.
• Sustainable transport and mobility in tourist destinations.
• Sustainable tourism education and awareness.

Other topics related to the theme of this Special Issue will also be considered.

Review Process: All articles submitted for this Special Issue will undergo a peer-review process, ensuring the quality and originality of the contributions. We welcome theoretical articles, case studies and empirical research that address the proposed topics or other innovative perspectives related to sustainability in tourism.

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Dr. Lucilia Cardoso
Dr. Giovana Goretti Feijó de Almeida
Dr. Luís Lima Santos
Dr. Paulo Almeida
Guest Editors

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• sustainable tourism
• tourism innovation
• tourism destination
• sustainable development
• smart tourism